Closing in on Ichiro, waiting on Youk.

The Yanks are supposedly close to bringing back Ichiro on a 1-yr. deal. Ichiro hit .322 for the Yanks, with 5 HR, 27 RBI and a team-leading 14 SB (in only 67 games) after the Yanks got him from Seattle.

For the season, Suzuki hit .283-9-55 with 29 SB, OPS+ 95.

I don’t mind the move, as I’ve always loved Ichiro. But the move does worry me. As of now, the Yanks OF would be Gardner, Granderson and Ichiro. All lefty bats. A righty bat is needed. Another worry about Ichiro is his age—39. We already have a lot of old players (Mo, Kuroda, Jeter, A-rod, Pettitte…)

Don’t look to Andruw Jones. He signed a deal (thankfully) with a Japanese team this week. Besides, he only hit .197 last year.

Scott Hairston would be a nice possibility to platoon with Ichiro and provide righty-bat OF depth. Hairston, 33 next May, hit .263-20-57 for the Mets last year, OPS+ 117. His 162 g. ave. is .247-20-58, OPS+ 100. Average player, mostly LF, but who has played CF, RF and even 2B.

Meanwhile the Yanks wait on Kevin Youkilis. I know, rooting for Youk is like… ugh. But the Yanks do need a 3B with A-Rod out for half the season. Youk could also fill in for Teix at 1B. He’ll be 34 and hasn’t played 145 games in a season since 2008. He’s had injury issues. He hit just .235-19-60, OPS+ 99 last year. But if he could give .246-18-70 (his average over the last two years, OPS+ 111), … He is not young himself… 34 in March. But Alex being out and Chavez’ departure lead to desperate measures. Even signing Joba’s mortal enemy.

No word yet on Ibanez back as DH, but that (41 in June) is another age problem.